


The snake that shed her skin to call the spring

by ertrunkener_Wassergeist



Series: Born Into the Wilds [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: All but Shiva are my OCs, Erinnye the Brave, Folklore, Galahd, Galahdian Religion, Gen, Ostium Clan, Shiva the Killing Cold, Shiva's only mentiones though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 14:25:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18671512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ertrunkener_Wassergeist/pseuds/ertrunkener_Wassergeist
Summary: When the people climbed the last mountain of Galahds first island, drank from the last river to be found, swam in the last lake and walked through the last turns of the canyon the Killing Cold came. Unhindered she walked through the villages and froze every man, woman and child who dared to stray too far from the hearths.





	The snake that shed her skin to call the spring

**Author's Note:**

> Another folk tale in my headcanon of the Galahdian religion.
> 
> There are two words in this I made up myself:  
> Galahkari means "the people of Galahd"  
> nadurwih is the name of the Galahdian religion
> 
> Hope you all have fun reading :)

Come, come closer to the fire and let me tell you a story. Listen well for this is a tale told to me by my mother and father, who were told by their mother and father back until the time of the long nights and lightless days.

When the people climbed the last mountain of Galahds first island, drank from the last river to be found, swam in the last lake and walked through the last turns of the canyon the Killing Cold came. Unhindered she walked through the villages and froze every man, woman and child who dared to stray too far from the hearths.

She came to requite the people for leaving the Astrals to their quarrels.

She came and the air turned solid in freezing lungs and blood became crystals the colour of a bloody sunrise. She came to end the Galahkari, but that was not what happened.

For though the Galahkari had forsaken the Six it did not mean that they didn’t have faith and nadurwih on their side. Both back then were yet still young. However, it didn’t mean that they lacked power.

On the third day of the Killing Colds rampage Erinnye of the Ostium dared to leave her hearth and home to put an end to it one way or another. Brave Erinnye left her family behind, safe by the fires, to carry out the duty of her clan and banish the white she-devil from the lands she, until this day, has no place in. Her family wept bitter tears certain in the knowledge that this would be the last time they would ever see her.

“Don’t grieve for I’m not dead yet,” she said, “Even if the Killing Cold shatters my body with her burning ice, I’ll always watch over you, if not in body, then in spirit from where our ancestors are.”

Then she left the warmth of her home, the faces of her family firmly burned into her mind. They gave her the warmth to brave the cold.

Outside the snow had begun to pile so high that every step Erinnye took was a test for her strength. She did not know how she could stop the Killing Cold, only that it was her responsibility to do so. So she followed the icy trail the Killing Cold had left into the heart of the freezing winds.

She found shelter in the wilderness of the jungle when the darkness of day made way for the darkness of the night and in that shelter she found a snake frozen half to death. It was nearly as long as she was tall and white like the snows with green patterns that looked like they moved beneath the scales.

“You won’t find what you’re looking for here, woman of the Ostium,” said the snake as Erinnye stepped near.

“Then where may I find it?” she asked as she started to build a fire.

The cold had seeped deep into her bones and made her limbs stiff and unfeeling. Still, Erinnye was nothing if not persistent and after a while a small fire was burning within the shelter.

“Share with me your warmth and I may tell you,” said the snake.

The brave woman considered it. Snakes were very knowledgeable as every person in her village knew. Maybe this one had been sent to her from her ancestors as a guide, as snakes often were. So she accepted and the white snake wound itself around her under the fabrics and furs of her cloaks.

“Go to the witch that lives in the great hollow tree. Kin of my kin protects her and if I am with you, they’ll let us pass. She’s very wise and will be able to help if you can pay her price,” the snake whispered.

They spent the night in their shelter beside the small fire, besieged by darkness and the freezing cold. But they both endured and when the darkness of the night made way for the darkness of day Erinnye followed the directions as given by the snake, whose name was Shaashasar.

Erinnyes limbs were as stiff and without feeling as before and still she carried Shaashasar who would have died, had the woman not found her. Thirst and hunger weakened her but she did not dare to quench her first with the snow, for she feared the Killing Colds magic would freeze her from the inside out if she tried. So brave Erinnye walked on, thirsty, hungry and weakened by the cold and with each step she took the air grew even colder. She knew however, that her ancestors were with her, for they made it so that her path would cross with a snake’s.

A snake white as snow and the green of spring under her scales, and that guided her to where she had to be to banish the white she-devil from their lands.

On the second day of their travel it started to snow again. It was no ordinary snow, however. The trees of the jungle held away most of it but still the flakes clung to her like the silk of a spider’s web and leeched the last of her warmth from her skin.

Erinnye was at the end of her considerable strength. The faces of her family, the warmth of their love, she had used to ward from the cold were melting away. She could not see their smiles any longer, or hear their voices and so she stumbled blind and deaf through the trees until she couldn’t go any further. Brave Erinnye fell into the snow and could not move a single muscle anymore.

Her strength had left her.

She was tired and no pleading word of Shaashasar could reach her.

 

But that was not the end.

 

Footsteps sounded in the snow.

“I know you’re there young one. Come out so that I may talk to you.”

And there before Shaashasar stood the Wise Witch, bare-footed, without furs to warm her and the trophies of her victories braided into her inky hair. Her golden eyes burned with an inner fire that made the snows around her melt, but no green came from beneath it for the spring had fled when the Killing Cold came.

“Oh wise-one, witch in the hollow tree, protected of kin of my kin, please help this brave woman of the Ostium, for her body is strong and her mind and heart even stronger, “ pleaded Shaashasar.

The Wise Witch looked over the woman that lay in the snow as if dead and shook her head. “I cannot help her, young one.”

“Then all hope is lost and I shall die with her. It was her who saved me from the cold where she didn’t have to and it was her who continued to gift me her warmth that she herself needed so desperately.”

Shaashasar curled around the brave and selfless Erinnye to die there with her and the witch looked on, her golden eyes gleaming.

“You misunderstand, young one,” she said. “I cannot help her, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean that you cannot.”

That made Shaashasar lift her scaly head again and her eyes, blue like the sky in spring, gained a new kind of desperation. It was the desperate need to safe someone very dear to you.

“What must I do?”

The Wise Witch smiled and simply said: “You must bring back the spring.”

Shaashasar was silent for a while, but she was clever and knew what she had to ask if she wanted to safe her friend. “I don’t know how to do that. What price will I pay for you to help me?”

The Wise Witch smiled again and this time there was warmth in it that hadn’t been there before. “Is the price so important to you, little one?”

“No, no it isn’t,” answered the white snake. “For a worthy goal every prize is worth paying. What must I do?”

Then the Wise Witch carved a bowl out of the ice the Killing Cold had spread and filled it with a clear potion that smelled of fertile earth and growing things.

“Submerge into the potion and shed your skin. That is all you have to do,” she said.

And so Shaashasar did.

She slithered into the bowl and the moment her whole body was submerged she started to shed her skin. More and more she shed until her scales were papery thin and the green beneath grew and split them open. New flowers burst forth, fresh greens and the warmth of new life.

Warmth, that seeped into Erinnyes skin and gave her new energy. She opened her eyes and all around her green things were growing and the snow was retreating. Not far from her a bowl of ice stood and from it vines full of flowers, blue like the sky in spring, grew and between them in the clear water a snake’s skin floated. The Wise Witch knelt next to it.

“You’ve made a friend for life and beyond in the young snake, woman of the Ostium. Shaashasar abandoned her physical form to bring back the spring and safe your life, for the cold of the white she-devil was killing you,” she said, plucked the sheer skin from the water and held it out for her to take.

“She’s with the ancestors now?” asked Erinnye, grieved, even though she had known her friend for but a few days.

“No,” answered the witch. “She’s with the first flowers of spring, the new green growing in the bushes and trees, the sun that melts the snows.”

Then the sun broke through the clouds the Killing Cold had conjured and Galahd celebrated. The Killing Cold was finally gone and would never take one of theirs again, for the snake that shed her skin to call the spring would chase her away every time she tried.


End file.
